I blame my mother:

She’s a quilting fanatic and it looks like her fanaticism has finally rubbed off on me. This is my first attempt at real quilting, and I have to admit, I’m a wee bit proud of myself. I’ve done other “quilt-like” projects, but none have involved batting, or stippling the fabric, or binding edges with bias fabric.

The design of the pillow is not my own. A few months ago, I was stopped cold by the cover of a seasonal sewing magazine called Stitch, put out by the Quilting Arts folks. The photo of the pillow on the cover is what grabbed me. It was designed by a fiber artist in Austin, Texas, named Malka Dubrawsky. Go check her blog — she does amazing things with dyes and fabrics, and if you love this pillow design as I do, you’ll love her aesthetic.

Anyhoo, the directions for the pillow couldn’t have been easier. They were well written (something I find lacking in a lot of craft magazines) and everything was so clearly explained that even I, a home ec flunkie, had no trouble turning out a beautiful pillow of my own. I was so proud of my work when I finished it up last night that I carried the pillow around room to room so I could let my eye catch the colors as I tidied up.

I told my husband I was making it for a gift, but come on — it’s my first real quilting project. I can’t give it away now! Besides I made a couple of mistakes (the binding is not as lovely as I would like it) — the next pillow will be better.

Here’s the back:

P.S. This pillow is also my inaugural sewing project to receive a custom label from my workshop. I ordered them last week from Hong Kong. I feel so Seventh Avenue.

Since I’ve radically changed my diet and stopped doing so much professional recipe development, I’ve been spending less time in the kitchen, which leaves a lot more time for my other obsession: sewing! I put my sewing machine away soon after my son started walking, a little over six years ago, because I was afraid he’d put a pin in his mouth or slice himself with one of my rotary cutters. Now that he’s almost eight, I decided to drag everything back out … and boy, is it ever fun. There’s something about sewing that really relaxes me and puts me into the “zone.” Know what I’m talking about? Where you’re so involved in a project, you look up and realize it’s 2:30 … in the morning?

One of my “big” projects was a quilted blanket for a good friend of mine from college. Actually, the quilt was for her son Liam, born in December. It took me awhile to finish it, but here it is … my second attempt at “quilting.” I was pretty happy with it (loved the fabrics, which came in a little kit), but I hated working with the faux fur. My friend wrote to me after I sent it and said her little boy loved the fur, so it was worth it. Here’s the little guy enjoying his new blanket. Isn’t he the cutest little thing!!

Next up is something I finished this morning, an apron that I’m giving as a belated birthday gift. I liked the design of the pattern a lot (Butterick 4945), with the contrasting facing and band along the bottom. My son picked out the material — not what I would have picked out, but I think he did a good job picking a polka dot contrast against the ladybug material. (The apron is seriously wrinkled in the photo — I wanted to take a photo of it outdoors before it started raining again.)

While I love the design, I’m not sure I’ll make this apron again. It was a little too fiddly for my tastes, with all the hand whipstitching along the facings. However, I watched the YouTube video that Barbara at Cat Fur Studio posted about her experience sewing this apron, and it looks like I made more work for myself by following the pattern’s directions. So maybe I’ll give this apron another shot; I got back from our local quilt shop not 15 minutes ago and have already fallen in love with some Kaffe Fasset prints that would look lovely made into this apron.

Okay, speaking of aprons — I do have some new food recipes to post, which I’ll get to throughout the next couple days, including one for yummy gluten-free vegan lemon poppyseed muffins.